Big Money Out, Democracy In!

​We must get big money out of politics if the United States is to remain a democracy. Even before the election of Donald Trump, in 2014, two political scientists published an article in which they demonstrated that government systematically ignores the wishes of the majority of Americans and instead serves the interests of those wealthy people who make large campaign contributions. Here's a Talking Points Memo piece that breaks down their work. In this interview, with Martin Gilens, one of the authors of the article, you'll find the following exchange:

TPM: Let's talk about the study. If you had 30 seconds to sum up the main conclusion of your study for the average person, how would you do so?

Martin Gilens: I'd say that contrary to what decades of political science research might lead you to believe, ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does in the United States. And economic elites and interest groups, especially those representing business, have a substantial degree of influence. Government policy-making over the last few decades reflects the preferences of those groups -- of economic elites and of organized interests.

The United States has ﻿fallen from a full democracy to a flawed democracy﻿ in the Economist magazine's Intelligence Unit ratings.The downgrade was not a consequence of Donald Trump, states the report. Rather, it was caused by the same factors that led Mr Trump to the White House: a continued erosion of trust in government and elected officials, which the index measures using data from global surveys. In total, it incorporates 60 indicators across five broad categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties.Click here for the Christian Science Monitor's reflections on this development.

Here's what Our Revolution has to say about the Citizens United decision.

IN TENNESSEECurious about how much money was spent by candidates running for the CD8 seat in 2016 during the primary? Here's an article by Daniel Connolly of the Commercial Appeal. The article names large contributors to the different campaigns, including one individual who contributed $2,700 to David Kustoff's effort - former president George W. Bush. Kustoff spent at least $88,000 on his primary campaign.

Go to followthemoney.org to get all the hard data on the money spent on campaign contributions in Tennessee.